Jersey City hospital patient steals car, crashes, flees on foot

JERSEY CITY (WABC) -- Police in New Jersey are looking for a hospital patient who stole an employee's car and crashed it before fleeing the scene Thursday.

Authorities say the 34-year-old man was a patient at Jersey City Medical Center when he took car keys out of a worker's coat that was hanging up in a trauma room, drove off in the man's 2005 Ford Explorer and was involved in a two-car accident soon after.

The suspect was being treated for a fall and was placed in the trauma room. After he was released, he was caught on surveillance video pacing through the parking lot, pushing the buttons on the victim's keys until the lights on the vehicle flashed.

The 911 call came in around 6:30 a.m., and the vehicle was found less than an hour later at Bergen and Belmont avenues following the crash. Authorities say the suspect crashed into a parked car, exited the vehicle and told the woman sitting inside that he had just been released from the hospital before running east on Belmont Avenue.

Jersey City Medical Center security is working closely with the Jersey City Police Department in the search for the suspect, and anyone with information is asked to contact authorities.